Safford: We Can’t MAGA With A Debased Currency

Is this how to win an election, by putting together the right amount of money? Probably. But James Safford says it shouldn't be that way.

Let’s face it, 2008 was not a good year for some folks. There were others that had it even worse. Imagine how bad would it be to live through that again!

Since that awful recession we have tightened the belt in America. That’s not a bad thing. The banks have been forced to do it as well. By 2019 the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) will supposedly be 100% for banks.

That should protect us from another recession right? Our financial institutions are the backbone right? Nope, that’s wrong.What is LCR? The simplest way to put this is to say that by 2019 a bank has to have liquid assets for every dollar they lend out. In 2016 they were only required to have a 70% LCR. We started at the bottom. Now we’re here (To quote hip hop superstar Drake.)

But where is here exactly?

This Is Not My Beautiful EconomyWe at least have our banking situation under control, right? So why are so many experts still forecasting another recession by 2025? And how does Trump factor into this?The reason why they can’t nail it down or project the severity is because of the looming Presidential election in 2020. If Sergeant Major Creepy Combover is replaced by a more fiscally responsible president, we could possibly even avoid that projected 2025 recession. Personally, I don’t think that’s possible.

There’s Sergeant Major Creepy Combover, as James Safford has nicknamed him!

A different president may prolong another recession. We will still have one hit us in the next ten years or so. But I don’t think it will be as insignificant as these experts say. People won’t invest if they hear doom and gloom on the horizon, so it’s better to rest that possibility on an election.Let’s go back to the LCR. We have strict guidelines for banks and financial institutions following the 08′ recession, but that was only half of our problem. The largest financial institution is still running rampant with no LCR type regulations to keep them in check. Who am I referring to? Who else? That would be the federal government–Uncle Sam.

Federal Government Spending Run Amok

Where do you think the banks learned it all from? Their big brother, naturally–the government! The US has been cash poor since 1965. Some may argue that statement but as always I’m going to back it up with numbers that will blow your mind.In 1964 the minimum wage in the US was $1.15 hr. With 90% silver purity, a 1964 quarter was worth around .23 cents based on the value of silver in that year. Workers were paid a grand total of .828 oz of silver at $1.29 per oz per hour. That works out to roughly $1.07 in silver per hour. Factor in the value of the other metals and you come up just shy of the $1.15 per hour.We stopped making silver quarters in 1965. The new nickel-clad quarters had virtually zero value if you melted them down. The value of our coinage went from .23 cents of silver in a quarter to .0001 cents of junk metal.Before 1965 we were closely operating on the silver and gold standard with a hypothetical LCR of 100%…ish. So what happened? Don’t say inflation. Inflation is a term that can be applied but does not define the action of switching the metals composition of a coin. We steered off course and set in motion a chain reaction that would ripple into our financial institutions.

The economy is heading in this direction if the federal government doesn’t get its act together.

Between now and then the banks went all the way up and then came crashing down in 2008. But what about big brother? What about the influence that started this trend? How are we still treading water and when will we be great again?Trump talks MAGA, but thinks of the 1980’s as our hay day. Sorry pal, but 1965 was the year we took a wrong turn. If you want to MAGA, you need to do your homework. It can’t be done.Let me repeat. You cannot MAGA.Here’s why.We are so far off course. As our minimum wage increased from $1.25/hr in 1965 to $7.25/hr in 2018 the value of silver went up…way up. From $1.29oz in 1964 to $16.49oz in 2018. Silver is up 1279%. Did it go up that much or did the dollar just tank?Minimum wage was roughly 1oz of silver per hour in 1964.

We Can’t MAGAUse that same rate of change and minimum wage should be $16.50 an hour. If you want to compare the US to the rest of the world take literally any item sold in 1964 and multiply its msrp by 1279%. Compare that number to what it really sells for today and you will start to see what’s wrong with this country and why fixing it would be so difficult. Wage distribution is way off in the country. We need to move the bottom line up to squeeze out the top.

These ain’t what they used to be–not even close!

I’ll give you one example. Apple Pie. Baseball. Ford Mustang. The 1964 price of a base model Mustang was $2,368. Multiple that by 1279% it should cost $30,287…but it doesn’t. A 2018 base model Mustang starts at $25,680.The same people that could afford one in 1964 cannot afford one in 2018 and they are cheaper by comparison today than they were in 1964!!! Wages are not increasing at the same rate as goods!!!If a 2018 US quarter was made like a 1964 quarter it would have a value of $2.90 in silver. It would literally be worth more than ten times its monetary value in the US. That’s how far down we have come.So what happened?The reserves are depleted. We have a deficit. We have a federal reserve that has become an entirely different monster then it was meant to be.

Stagnant Wages1279% is the magic number. The rest of the western world has progressed at roughly the same rate but we have not. When we opted out of physically putting the value of our money into our money we lost all hope.Today your currency is worthless. You’re told its for safety and commerce but what it’s really for is to backup lines of credit and grow the deficit even further.

Soon, this bag full of money will buy you a loaf of bread.

If the US was looked at as we look at banks we would see a negative LCR and close the doors tomorrow.The only thing we can do is strap in and enjoy the ride. Work locally to find solutions for our day to day problems and bring our local communities closer together. We need to be in recession protection mode. We need to start looking into ways to make Rhode Island the first state to bounce back from another recession and not the last.Hint–Gina Raimondo is swimming in the opposite direction and making it worse.We can’t afford a repeat of 2008. We still haven’t fully recovered from it.Move the minimum wage up to $16.50. If a business can’t function let them close shop. People always find ways to prosper in dire times. Tear it all down and build it back up again. The balance of wages is way off. If we don’t do this now we may not be around for future generations.Let’s reboot the US!

Russell J. Moore is the publisher and founder of rirelevant.com. He’s been writing about Rhode Island since 2005. You should definitely follow him on twitter @russmoore713. If you want to send him email, you can send it to russmoore713@gmail.com